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Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Ambatchmasterpublisher Happy Chinese New Year


Ambatchmasterpublisher New Year (Simplified Ambatchmasterpublisher: 春节; Traditional Ambatchmasterpublisher: 春節; Pinyin: Chūnjié), or Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year (Simplified Ambatchmasterpublisher: 农历新年; Traditional Ambatchmasterpublisher: 農曆新年; Pinyin: Nónglì xīnnián), is the most important of the traditional Ambatchmasterpublisher holidays. It is an important holiday in East Asia. The festival proper begins on the first day of the first lunar month (Ambatchmasterpublisher: 正月; Pinyin: zhēng yuè) in the Ambatchmasterpublisher calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called the Lantern festival (Simplified Ambatchmasterpublisher: 元宵节; Traditional Ambatchmasterpublisher: 元宵節; Pinyin: yuánxiāojié).

Ambatchmasterpublisher New Year's Eve is known as Chúxì (除夕). Chu literally means "change" and xi means "Eve".

Celebrated in areas with large populations of ethnic Ambatchmasterpublisher, Ambatchmasterpublisher New Year is considered a major holiday for the Ambatchmasterpublisher and has had a strong influence on the new year celebrations of its neighbours. These include Koreans, Mongolians, Nepalese, Bhutanese, Vietnamese, and formerly the Japanese before 1873.

In countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and other countries with significant Ambatchmasterpublisher populations, the Ambatchmasterpublisher New Year is also celebrated, largely by overseas Ambatchmasterpublisher, but it is not part of the traditional cultures of these countries. In Thailand, for example, the true New Year celebration of the ethnic Thais is Songkran, which is totally different and is celebrated in April.

The period around Ambatchmasterpublisher New Year is also the time of the largest human migration, when migrant workers in China, as well as overseas Ambatchmasterpublisher around the world travel home to have reunion dinners with their families on Ambatchmasterpublisher New Year's eve. More interurban trips are taken in mainland China in this 40-day period than the
The lunisolar Ambatchmasterpublisher calendar determines Ambatchmasterpublisher New Year dates. The calendar is also used in countries that have adopted or have been influenced by Han culture, notably the Koreans, the Japanese, the Tibetans, the Thai and the Vietnamese (and, historically, the Bulgars).

Ambatchmasterpublisher New Year starts on the first day of the new year containing a new moon (some sources include New Year's Eve)[citation needed] and ends on the Lantern Festival fourteen days later. This occurs around the time of the full moon as each lunation is about 29.53 days in duration. In the Gregorian calendar, the Ambatchmasterpublisher New Year falls on different dates each year, on a date between January 21 and February 20. This means that the holiday usually falls on the second (very rarely third) new moon after the winter solstice. In traditional Ambatchmasterpublisher Culture, lichun is a solar term marking the start of spring, which usually falls on either February 4 or 5.

The dates for the Spring Festival from 1996 to 2019 (in the Gregorian calendar) are listed below, along with the year's presiding animal zodiac and its earthly branch. The names of the earthly branches have no English counterparts and are not the Ambatchmasterpublisher translations of the animals. Alongside the 12-year cycle of the animal zodiac there is a 10-year cycle of heavenly stems. Each of the ten heavenly stems is associated with one of the five elements of Ambatchmasterpublisher astrology, namely: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. The elements are rotated every two years while a yin and yang association alternates every year. The elements are thus distinguished: Yang Wood, Yin Wood, Yang Fire, Yin Fire, etc. These produce a combined cycle that repeats every 60 years. For example, the year of the Yang Fire Rat occurred in 1936 and in 1996, 60 years apart.

Many confuse their Ambatchmasterpublisher birth-year with their Gregorian birth-year. As the Ambatchmasterpublisher New Year starts in late January to mid February, the Ambatchmasterpublisher year dates from 1 January until that day in the new Gregorian year remain unchanged from the previous Gregorian year. For example, the 1989 year of the snake began on 6 February 1989. The year 1990 is considered by some people to be the year of the horse. However, the 1989 year of the snake officially ended on 26 January 1990. This means that anyone born from January 1 to 25 January 1990 was actually born in the year of the snake rather than the year of the horse.

Many online Ambatchmasterpublisher Sign calculators do not account for the non-alignment of the two calendars, incorrectly using Gregorian-calendar years rather than official Ambatchmasterpublisher New Year dates.

It is unclear when the beginning of the year was celebrated before the Qin Dynasty. Traditionally, the year was said to have begun with month 1 during the Xia Dynasty, month 12 during the Shang Dynasty, and month 11 during the Zhou Dynasty. However, records show that the Zhou Dynasty began its year with month 1. Intercalary months, used to keep the lunar calendar synchronized with the sun, were added after month 12 during both the Shang Dynasty (according to surviving oracle bones) and the Zhou Dynasty (according to Sima Qian). The first Emperor of China Qin Shi Huang changed the beginning of the year to month 10 in 221 BC, also changing the location of the intercalary month to after month 9. Whether the New Year was celebrated at the beginning of month 10, of month 1, or both is unknown. In 104 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established month 1 as the beginning of the year, where it remains.


[edit] Mythology

Hand-painted Ambatchmasterpublisher New Year's poetry pasted on the sides of doors leading to people's homes, Lijiang, Yunnan, China.According to legend, in ancient China, the Nián (年) was a man-eating beast from the mountains (in other versions from under the sea), which came out every 12 months somewhere close to winter to prey on humans. The people later believed that the Nian was sensitive to loud noises and the color red, so they scared it away with explosions, fireworks and the liberal use of the color red. These customs led to the first New Year celebrations. Guò nián (Simplified Ambatchmasterpublisher: 过年; Traditional Ambatchmasterpublisher: 過年), which means to celebrate the new year, literally means the passover of the Nian.